Two ex-college basketball coaches chart new path in growing game in Pensacola

Milton's Joey Murdock and East Hill Christian's Samba Johnson were both Division I college basketball coaches.

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Joey Murdock, left, whose coaching stops included Pensacola State College, and Samba Johnson, who has 20-plus years as college coach, thrilled to be back in high school.(Photo: Bill Vilona/bvilona@pnj.com)Buy Photo

This has always been the time when their world has spun faster than Joey Murdock and Samba Johnson preferred.

As college basketball assistant coaches, mid-summer was a different kind of madness. The madness of recruiting.

Summer was always plane to plane, car to car, gym to gym. Every dinner was a drive-through.

Beach time? Yeah, right. The only light was from rafters in arenas where day-after-day was spent scouting, evaluating and pursuing recruits.

"It never really stops," said Johnson, 43, who spent the past 20 years jas a college coach. "It was mostly fun, but it was hard to have a balanced life. You were never in a stable lifestyle."

Now, both Murdock and Johnson hope to find serenity in returning to the grass roots as newly hired high school coaches at separate schools — Murdock at Milton High and Johnson at East Hill Christian.

"There were weeks, especially in July when you are on the road for five days each week, inside a gym from 8 in the morning to 10 that night, so yes, this will be a lot different," said Murdock, 34, who grew up in Pensacola before his family moved to Orlando when he was in high school.

"Maybe for a week or so in August, you could take a break," he said. "Then it all started back again."

Murdock, who started as a high school coach at Tate, returns after a variety of college jobs, including five years at Pensacola State College as top assistant under Pete Pena, then the past three years at Charleston Southern.

Johnson, who grew up in a hard-scrabble side of Pittsburgh, along with competing in a high-level, no-holds-barred city high school league, is thrilled to be in a far-different environment as new coach at East Hill Christian.

"I was ready to have a balance life and do ministry work and give back to helping kids from all walks of life," Johnson said.

They knew of each other through college coaching and people in Pensacola. They met for the first time Tuesday at Milton, where Murdock is hosting a youth basketball camp with help of athletic director Murry Rutledge and many others.

There was an instant bond.

"I liked recruiting, believe it or not. I am kind of wired that way," Murdock said. "It will be a little different at home all the time. I don't know if my wife is going to like it or not."

HIs wife, Lori, had two minor, day-surgery procedures in July. Murdock is grateful he was Milton High's coach instead of a being a college recruiter at peak time.

"I didn't need to have my phone or my laptop with me at all times," he said. "I was with her. That's been a great change of pace."

After graduating from Pittsburgh's Schenley High School, which is now an apartment complex but was once a city prep basketball power, Johnson played at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, then at Chaminade.

Cleveland State became one of his Division I coaching jobs. He spent last year at NCAA Division III member Lynchburg (Va.) College.

While in Hawaii, at Chaminade, saw the beach for the first time.

The next time, he was a visiting camp counselor at Clemson, helping run a youth summer camp. One of the kids was 14-year-old D.C. Reeves, who is now chief of staff for Pensacola businessman and Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer.

The two connected like big brother and little brother. Reeves asked his mother if Johnson could visit. She agreed. When Johnson saw Pensacola and its beaches, he knew one day this is where he wanted to be.

"Growing in up in the inner city of Pittsburgh, I saw everything -- drugs, alcohol. drug dealers who were friends, deaths, gangs, you name it. But that journey helped me prepare for everything," said Johnson, who led Schenley High to a city championship and then took advantage of his college opportunity to set up his life.

He became a devout Christian and has used his faith to guide his career.

"Any kid I meet, anyone one I help here in Pensacola, they haven't experienced anything I have not experienced," he said. "The first time I saw Pensacola and the beauty it has, I wanted to be here. This is a great place to live and work."

In addition to the lure of Pensacola, along with their desire to return, Murdock and Johnson see a mission to help grow basketball.

The game has struggled in our area. It needs a boost. Both these men bring the passion, the college experience, their wisdom to help get more kids playing, more kids involved.

"I think a lot of kids in this area want to be good players," Murdock said. "I think the desire is there. I think it would be great if every high school coach could take a year and be a college coach and every college coach -- a lot of guys have never been in high school -- could spend a year as a high school coach.

"I have been in high school, junior college, high division one, low division one. So I have had the opportunity to see all the different levels of work you have to do."

Murdock was first reluctant to consider the Milton job. But after 10 more hours of watching a prep all-star tournament in Atlanta, while sitting in the same row of bleachers, he opted to level the chaotic world of college recruiting.

He called Milton High principal Tim Short and agreed to an interview. Short and Rutledge are both former Milton basketball coaches. He didn't need any more convincing.

Johnson leaped at the chance to be a small school with Christian values. It is a fraction of the size of his former high school.

But here they were Tuesday, together in common quest and thrilled to be in Pensacola, on a court while young kids were dribbling basketballs and their parents were in the bleachers.